Oh man! I have not updated in awhile. Never fear, we are always constantly working on our house. Most of it is not the showy improvements, but the little things like re-organizing our kitchen, buying house appropriate things (LIKE A BETTER WASTE BASKET), and rearranging our living room furniture. I do have a spring dinner coming up and I will be cooking tody aand tomorrow along with tablescaping. Stay tuned for pictures and all that jazz!

I love the word Bureau. I went to this Youth Literature Around the World Workshop and they talked about changing Australian/English words into American lingo. One word that came up was dresser over bureau. ANYWAY. The point of this post is to show a project I started in repainting old furniture in our house. I had no idea it was so easy. You just sand off the old finish and paint!

My sister-in-law came over to help with awesome paintbrushes and super cool paint colors to choose from. We sanded and painted everything last night. Over the next few weeks we will eventually stain and distress it all. I'm looking forward to the it all!

I'll post pictures when it is all stained and distressed. I think it's going to come out super awesome! To take this dresser to the next level---I might investigate getting some cool knobs.

Creating A Tablescape

I just started to get into tablescaping. According to HGTV , tablescaping is just that fancy word for table decorating.

Tablescaping is the art of arranging tabletops

— Shari Hiller

Growing up, I remember how my mom laid out a formal dinner table two or three times a year (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter). She followed the traditional formal table layout with centerpieces, place cards, napkin rings, the whole nine yards. My dad use to spend time doing everyone's name in calligraphy and would place them in this pristine polished silver rose place card holder. My husband and I are just starting out as newlyweds and while I would love to imitate my mother's table---pfft! That's not happening this year. I've put it as one of my many goals to achieve later in life. I went to assess what we already had---and what I could get purchase reasonably (or borrow).

After getting everything, I went to Pinterest just to get some ideas of what I could do. This was my favorite:

I really liked this idea of telling everyone that I'm grateful or thankful that they came for dinner. I took the place cards and did calligraphy of everyone's name and tied them to the squash. At first, I was going to paint each little squash, but decided not to as I felt they were already so colorful it would be a shame to take that away. I did wash the winter squash with a solution recipe I found online that would make them last longer and remove any dirt and grime.

My husband's idea was to mock plate it all first and then decide (which I did).

From doing a sample, I wanted to give the napkins a little extra "pop" because as much as I would LOVE HARVEST COLORED LINEN NAPKINS---we could not afford them this year. I kept reminding myself: we figured out two big things this year (table & china). I had leftover twine from my wedding, which I used to tie the paper napkins together. I thought it instantly made the one place sitting "spiff" up just a little bit more.

Featured is the tablescaping I did based off the ideas I found on Pinterest. I'm not worried about tablescaping past the plates. There will be so much food---that will be used to "fill" up the table. Centerpieces will come later in life.

That's how the finished table looked! I'm excited to do a Thanksgiving reflection! I hope it will all go well.

Thanksgiving is on it's way. I figured that slowly through the years, I'll start perfecting what it will look like. Start simple and slowly add a few things to the tradition each year, until it resembles my family's renowned Thanksgiving tradition: good food, comfortable space, and great bonding experiences. I have a few design ideas that I'm hoping to incorporate this year.

Dining Room Decor: Table

Tom and I have been going back and forth on dining room tables. He loves a Sorrento style table:

I'm more wanting a rectangle table that could comfortably sit 8-10 people. We searched a few sites and I think we've settled on Tom building a dining room table. I hope this project happens by Thanksgiving, but we will see! I'm thinking worst case scenario we stick two tables together this year. We will figure it out!

Dining Room Table Decor: China

I've been saving up for china. My mom's china was a big deal growing up and I would like to continue that tradition. I was raised by a Southern woman and would love to carrying on that torch of using fine china for holiday meals. Speaking of southern woman, Tom's sister recently pointed me toward Draper James by Reese Witherspoon. It is mostly clothing, but they do carry some great accent house decor.

Guest Bedrooms: Family

My family is super excited to come for the holidays! figure that each year, I'll have a goal to expand housing designs and decor and see how far I can come in three to five years! This year, our plan is to clean our room of horrors so we have enough sleeping space for everyone. I want everything cleaned and organized so everyone has a place to sleep. I'll work on getting comfortable guest beds. Until then, we just have to make do.